In the Internet's growing roadmap of photos, videos and hashtags tracking what's happening in Palestine and Israel, the image of a Palestinian lawyer kicking a tear gas canister back at Israeli security forces might be the most iconic yet.
The photo was taken just outside the West Bank city of Ramallah by Associated Press photographer Majdi Mohammed Shteih during a solidaity protest by the Palestinian Bar Association on Oct. 12. But it really took off when it was featured on Reddit's image sharing site, Imjur, on Wednesday, where it garnered over 1.5 million views overnight.
And a quick glance at the photo shows why—he's captured mid-punt, dress shoes and offiicial legal robes suspected in the air as blue tear gas billows below him.
There are images that stick with us in every MENA conflict. Aylan Kurdi and the crying Syrian father reaching Greece shook the Syrian conflict, while disturbing footage of a Palestinian boy's dying moments and gritty scenes of the first knife attack already mark the last few weeks in Jerusalem.
Twelve days of violence across the West Bank, East Jerusalem and Gaza has left 25 Palestinians and five Israelis dead. And of course this photo of the lawyer won't be the last to come out of the unfolding violence, but at least for today, it's defining it.
Here's photographer Majdi Mohamed Shteih's Facebook post about it.
APTOPIX MIDEAST ISRAEL PALESTINIANSA lawyer wearing his official robes kicks a tear gas canister back toward Israeli...
Posted by Majdi Mohammed Shteih photojournalist on Monday, October 12, 2015
